Hidden Valley secured its spot in the Group 3A state volleyball final in convincing fashion Tuesday night in the Titan gym.
They did it by finding the right spots with their serves all night.
Keeping the visitors from Poquoson off balance throughout the match, Hidden Valley served up a 25-16; 25-12; 25-17 sweep in the state semifinal match that sends the 21-5 Titans to Saturday’s final at the Virginia Commonwealth University Siegel Center in Richmond. First serve is scheduled for 3 p.m.
The game plan for Hidden Valley was evident from the start Tuesday night, and despite numerous adjustments, Poquoson couldn’t find the answer.
“Our serve-receive was not good enough to run our offense tonight,” Poquoson head coach Tim Hatok noted afterward.”We could not pass, and that made us one-dimensional. They were hitting their spots with their serves and that caused problems. We tried making adjustments along the back, but never got it right. Hidden Valley had some really good hitters, but if we can’t get out of our serve-receive to set our offense, we can’t score.”
“We wanted to keep the ball away from Whitlow,” Hidden Valley head coach Carla Ponn said of power hitter and Conference 25 player of the year Toni-Anne Whitlow, known for dominating a match with her kills. “I think we out served them. We played really good defense and we played good as a team and executed well. We had spots we wanted to hit with our serve and we did it.”
Poquoson still had its power, with Whitlow knocking down a game-high 16 kills, Megan Saetre slamming 15 and Hope Jennings 9. That’s 40 of the 45 Islander points coming off lasers, but getting enough sets to the net was the problem for Poquoson.
Hidden Valley was only pushed in the third set when Poquoson, already in a deep hole down 2-0, rebounded from an early 5-1 Titan lead to go up 13-9. Led by some service gems by senior Bre Lockhart and a monster kill by senior Georgia Farthing, Hidden Valley went on an 11-3 run that put the Titans up 20-16. Poquoson never recovered as Hidden Valley senior Lexie Baylor helped serve up a final 5-1 surge that was finished off by junior Drew Freeland’s match-clinching score.
Hidden Valley will now face defending Group 3A state champion Warhill, a 3-1 winner over Cave Spring Tuesday night in Williamsburg that ended the chance for an all-Southwest Roanoke County final.
“We’ve waited all season for this,” Hidden Valley junior Lauren Harrison said as the Titans celebrated. “I was really focused on my serves tonight, and hitting the spots deep.”
“I think we got more comfortable after the the second game,” junior Taylor Gray added. “It’s easier to relax and play your game when you’re up 2-0. Now, it’s two teams left.”
Farthing led the Hidden Valley power game with 14 kills, while Lockhart and junior Annie Clark each added 6 slams. Freeland posted 5 kills and put up 29 assists for the Titan offense. Lockhart brought up 8 digs, with Farthing saving 6 digs to keep the Islander leather off the hardwood.
Bill Turner
